There is no admission that the background art disclosed in this section legally constitutes prior art.
There have been many systems and methods to enable users to submit bets via a betting matrix comprising a plurality of rows and columns. Many of these games are known as lottery games. The known lottery games have many different parameters which are often created to provide a more interesting playing experience and award more interesting prizes.
There are other related games that provide a player various choices within a matrix for playing the game. One such game is roulette. Roulette is a casino game where players may choose to place bets on parameters such as a single number or range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum and falls onto the wheel and into one of 37 (in French/European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.
The payout (except for the special case of “top line bets”), for American and European roulette, can be calculated by the formula: Payout=(1/n)(36−n)=36/n−1, where n is the number of squares the player is betting on. The initial bet is returned in addition to the mentioned payout. If the roulette game only had 36 numbers, this payout formula to the player would lead to a zero expected value of profit. However, because the wheel has either 37 or 38 numbers, the casino has the edge (profit).
In roulette, however, the game can be played with a single player, or many players, but the odds of the prizes do not change. A player cannot change the odds or payout of a standard roulette game, nor can a player necessarily choose how many players are in that same game.
In California, to play Super Lotto Plus the player chooses five numbers from 1 to 47 and one additional number from 1 to 27. The odds of correctly choosing all 6 numbers and winning the grand jackpot is 1 in 41,416,353, which is mathematically equivalent to guessing a single number out of 41,416,353 possibilities.
Further, gambling addiction is a public health problem. It has been estimated that approximately 5% of all adults have symptoms of problem gambling (Potenza, 2008). Neural states measured in problem gamblers have been compared to neural states invoked in cocaine dependence. Specifically, problem gamblers experience problems with impulsivity in making healthy gambling decisions. Lottery gambling in particular has been shown to have purchase patterns consistent with addiction (Guryan & Kearney, 2010). In fact, research has shown that up to 15% of lottery players have symptoms of problem gambling (Grusser, Plontzke, Albrecht, & Morsen, 2007).
A key component of gambling addiction is the concept of a “near miss”. This cognitive mechanism occurs when a gambler feels that they can win a given gambling game if they only keep playing, regardless of previous failures (Parke & Griffiths, 2004). The existence of this mechanism in lottery purchases is clear: when a gambler sees evidence of successful lottery winners, this gives the gambler increased motivation to continue spending money on lottery tickets, even if the total amount spent is unhealthy (i.e. effecting the gambler's life in a negative way). Gambling products that give gamblers actual wins in much smaller monetary amounts than state lotteries may help reduce unhealthy gambling behavior influenced by “near misses”.
A late-1980s Duke University study found that the poorest ⅓ of households bought more than ½ of all weekly lottery tickets sold (Moran 1997) (Public Integrity, Fall 2006, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 367-379)
Therefore, what is needed for the good of the General Public is a mathematical construct implemented in software for use over the Internet that provides all players with an ability to create and manage their odds of winning.
Our invention gives participants actual wins in small, sustainable amounts with the option to select healthy amounts of risk. The invention generates all risk levels at draw time, however these risk levels are a function of the number of Investors participating in the event and as such the Investors know the risk levels ahead of time for that Investor pool size. Investors can create and select acceptable amounts of risk in a game. For example, they could select a 90% probability of payout (with lower payout for lower risk). The invention could be used to wean problem gamblers off high-risk games that invoke “near miss” cognitive mechanisms and subsequent problem gambling symptoms.
Because gambling addiction is a public health problem, supplemental forms of controlled, frugal gambling are needed that may help reduce gambling addiction.